The Offshore Compact weather file service is a highly optimized system which allows you to receive weather data, globally, in a variety of ways.

There are many related parts to the Offshore Data service, the most notable of which may be the new file format used for the delivery of weather data: the LuckGrib Offshore Data Compact weather file.

The WMO GRIB file format has been around since the 1980’s and is widely used in the industry to exchange weather data. LuckGrib uses GRIB format files when you are downloading data over a high speed internet connection.

As part of the Offshore Data package, a new file format has been created. This Compact Offshore Data file is proprietary to LuckGrib - no other product can read these files or offer the compression benefits it achieves. (Although the files can be exported from the app and then read by others.)

The Offshore Compact file format delivers much better file compression than any other available technology - typically Offshore Compact files are 50% the size of the equivalent GRIB file. This is a huge improvement for weather file access over slow, low bandwidth connections. See the file compression page for some more details.

There are many advantages to the Offshore Data service:

• these are the smallest, most compact files available.
• faster downloads. The less data there is to transfer, the faster your download will finish.
• a proprietary optimized transport protocol was developed and is being used to transfer the data files. This protocol is specialized for satellite internet connections.
• download directly via satellite using an Iridium GO! or RedPort Optimizer.
• restart a satellite download after an error is encountered, partial download results are retained.
• set the maximum file size you want delivered and the LuckGrib server will respect the limit.
• the entire suite of LuckGrib models and parameters are available. Probability wind data. 500mb. Ensemble standard deviation. Simulated radar to help forecast squalls. Ocean current and wave data.
• you have many choices for the download model resolution - choose a wide area at coarse resolution or a smaller area with finer resolution.
• a favorable pricing model (Pay once. Racers welcome.)

Note that the LuckGrib Offshore Compact weather service is a system, not simply a file format. Elements of the system work together to provide the best and most efficient experience possible.